I want to plant four or five apple trees in our woods... One of my friends told me it is very hard to get a new tree to grow and survive when planting amongst other trees... He claims the other trees rob all of the moisture in the ground and your tree will die from lack of water.. He apparently tried to grow some new pine trees in amongst a bunch of oak trees and he said they all died..

Now, I'm just wondering, if I am only planting four or five trees and I go out once a week for the first couple months and water them heavily....... would they survive????????

I understand his logic.. I can imagine a young tree planted out in the wide open would have alot better chance to survive since there is no competition for water or light...

What do you guys think? Surely someone has tryed this before, wondering what kind of luck anyone has had ?

Last year I planted 10 apple trees. Some of them made it and some of them did not. Do you plan on eating these apples yourself or are they for the deer? When I first looked into apple trees I was amazed on how many different types there were and all the different things about them. Late producers or early producers, hardiness, pollination,ect. But dont let that overwhelm, you can def. grow them.

The best bet is to do some research or talk to someone who owns an orchard to get some advice to determine what type of apple tree is the best bet to plant in your area. How hardy the tree is, late or early producer, pollination, ect. I live in northern NY and its as cold as a witches titty here in the winter. A good hardy producer and pollinator for my area are Cortlands. I also planted other types of apples trees as well.

I would buy the trees as big as possible and put a fence around them to keep deer and other critters away. I also fetrilize and spray my trees to keep deer and insects from eating them.

Is it possible? sure, but you need to take certain steps to do it right. obviously you cant plant a small apple tree under a big shade tree and expect it to make it. You need to make sure it is getting the right amount of everything it needs to survive.

Another thing a guy at a local orchard does is paint the bases of his trees in white latex paint. He told me that it prevents the tree from cracking in the winter if you get a warm day with the sun shining on it and then it quickly freezes. The latex paint will stretch as it grows. He talked my ears off but he was kind enough to share all his knowledge (believe me it was alot) and I had a great time listening to everything he shared with me. All of his trees look great and are filled with apples but he also takes the time to properly care for them.

Hope this helps and let me know what you go with!

Put me on a mountain, way back in the backwoods
Put me on a lake with biggin' on the line
Put me around a campfire cookin' something I just cleaned

Your friend is right, but the bigger problem might be sunlight. Fruit trees like alot of sunlight. They need to be fenced for protection for many years, until large enough so browsing will be minimal. Trunks may always need protection from mice and rubbing antlers. Also small apple trees can suffer alot of bear damage, in bear country.

"The real problem is not how we shall handle the deer in this emergency. The real problem is one of human managment. Wild life managment is comparatively easy; human management difficult." Aldo Leopold, March 1943

Well, thanks guys, this is helping alot...
Yes, the trees are only for the deer, not me..
The place I have in mind is on top of a ridge, where I think they would get lots of sun..
Yes, definately plan on fencing them in to keep the deer out... I like the idea of painting the trunks though, that's one of them old timer tricks huh?
and yes, I have heard that there are lots of different kinds of apple trees, like you said, early or late bloomers and the names out there...
But yes, I will try to talk to someone on an orchard farm first and see what they have to say...
I guess the only other question I have, is, like I said, it's on a ridge where I want to grow them, the ground is rocky and pretty sandy.. I'm wondering if I should take some good black dirt there to plant the trees with, or maybe some of that miracle grow stuff ??

All great ideas though guys, I'm getting pretty excited to go get it done.... and oh yes, bigger the tree, the better, I'm hoping to buy some 5 or 6 footers at least.....

We just bought and planted 11 trees this past weekend at our house. They were all at or above 5 feet tall. Of those 11, three were honeycrisp and two were crabapple. I want to get a few more for our hunting properties and was wondering how you all go about this...Use a fence as stated, but what do you do about watering? Do you water everyday?

ORIGINAL: duckunder yes, I have heard that there are lots of different kinds of apple trees, like you said, early or late bloomers and the names out there...

Varieties like: Liberty, Honeycrisp, Honeygold, Northwest Greening, Wolf River, Enterprise, Jonafree .... with Enterprise being the latest maturing. These varieties work good for deer because are cold hardy, train easy, they hang on the tree well, and drop over a longer period. Pick what you want for yourself, leave the rest for the deer to get off the ground. [;)]

ORIGINAL: duckunderand oh yes, bigger the tree, the better, I'm hoping to buy some 5 or 6 footers at least.....

I prefer the larger "standard" sized trees when possible or at least "semi-dwarf"... this is dependant on root stock. Larger/taller trees take longer to produce fruit, but will be less vulnerable to browsing in the long run.

"The real problem is not how we shall handle the deer in this emergency. The real problem is one of human managment. Wild life managment is comparatively easy; human management difficult." Aldo Leopold, March 1943

IMO I would not use Honeycrisp for deer.
Reason number one is that if you get them to grow and produce apples and then eat one, you wont want to give the deer any and you will eat them all yourself.
The second reason is that a man who runs a local orchard told me that the Honeycrisp do not produce the large quantity of apples that other trees do. His Honeycrisp trees did not have as many apples on them as the other types did but after doing a quick search on the net I could not find any other information proving this. I just listen to him since he does it for a living (besides being retired).

With me, I planted several different types. I wanted some to eat myself but I also wanted late droppers with large quantities for the deer. We have 2 huge crabapples trees that the deer nail early and completely rip the ground up underneath to the point where there is just dirt and tracks.

Put me on a mountain, way back in the backwoods
Put me on a lake with biggin' on the line
Put me around a campfire cookin' something I just cleaned

Remember...50 dollar hole for a 10 dollar tree......mix in good rich soil that you've added moisture retaining pellets to.... with the origanal soil

I just purchased trees from gurneys...they are having a sale....replacing older relience peach...deer and turkey love them and heavy early producers....(variety)and new gala apples....We have many wild apples that produce at differant times and I like to...when transplanting the wild ones plant two saplings in one hole....wilds produce good every other year....for some reason when I plant two in the same whole they grow to have their production stagger...thus yearly fruiting